By Touch

2 || Sebastian Says

2 || Sebastian Says

My car ride with Sebastian hadn't been what I had expected. In fact, imagine my expectations as a plane journey that's anticipated travel is to go from A to B. Now imagine this plane crashing repeatedly into unexpected stops, returning to the sky only to crash again before finally plummeting into the sea. My questioning summarised: turbulent. For every question answered rose another four that neither one of us were able to make sense of, and dare I say it, I was starting to doubt I'd known my lifelong best friend very well at all.

"So what do you want me to tell you?" Sebastian had asked as we clambered into the back of a car. He'd apparently called his Dad, but judging by the first name greeting he and the driver had shared and the silence that followed, I was starting to doubt whether or not his father was our chauffeur. His family certainly had the income for a legitimate one.

"Why did Gabriel want to see you?" I didn't miss a beat. His father or not, I wasn't going to filter out any untoward questions that had the potential to create an uncomfortable atmosphere in the car or between he and whoever our driver was. After all, this was probably the only time I would ever get the chance to ask them. "Surely you had some inclination?"

"Honestly, I really don't know. I'll tell you what I told the police, and that is that I'd been told Gabriel was in a spot of bother with somebody harassing him. Sending him threats online, letters to his house, stuff like that. I had thought he might have presumed it to be me."

"Threats?" Officer Murdo asking me if my best friend had been in any trouble, and me, in outrage, vehemently denying any such claim sprung to mind. My face flushed in a mixture of anger and embarrassment. "Who told you that? What kind of threats? Why wouldn't he tell me? Why would he think it was you?"

"You've said it yourself countless times before, we don't get along!" Perhaps I'd raised my voice without meaning to in order to warrant Sebastian's defensive snap. My lips weren't my own anymore, not after this. Although you think you have control over your emotions, sometimes it's just not the case.

"Sorry," I muttered, prising my rigid fingers from the leather upholstery seat I'd subconsciously been using as a stress ball. Looking out at what would have been the car window I confessed, "I just don't understand any of this. I want to try and understand, but I just-" I let out a low breath, trying to ignore the fact the last time I had been in a car that wasn't owned by the police had been with Gabriel not even four hours previously. Apparently those car journeys would be no longer. "I'm finding this all pretty difficult to digest considering I spent every moment with him and yet apparently had no idea what he was going through or doing with his time when it wasn't with me."

For at least ten seconds the only audio was the low murmur of nearby traffic and our car cutting through the strong wind that's force had only been picking up as the day struggled on. Sebastian finally interrupted it with, "We mightn't have gotten on very well, but you were very important to him and I'm sure he was to you, too. I don't know why he didn't tell you anything, but I kept my nose out of his business so I'd be the last person to ask. Before school finished up he started getting into fights. Flunked a few of his exams. Gloria had to run for help to break up a scuffle by the lockers and she overheard him shouting at the guy about how he knew he was the one that had been threatening him."

I knew the most important part of what Sebastian had just divulged had of course been the latter, so I couldn't say why my brain clung to the former concerning his examinations. Perhaps because Gabriel and I hadn't spoken face to face about any form of threat, but we had about his grades. Perhaps because I had made him a cake that my parents had helped me ice seeing as piping words wasn't so simple anymore, and it had read: STRAIGHT A STUDENT. I had been over the moon when Sebastian had said the exams he'd been so stressed about and studying so religiously for had been a breeze. 'They were a piece of cake' had been his exact boastful words. It's why I had made him one.